Suspicious Circs
by RpFaith2004
Summary: Five days have passed and Sara is still missing. The FBI has given up on fidning her. Will the rest of the nightshift? Will Catherine?
1. Suspicious Crics

Disclaimer: CSI and its characters belong to CBS. This story is for entertainment purposes only.  
Warning: Future Cath/Sara femslash I reread this and did some changes. I plan on posting the second chapter by tonight or tomorrow.

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Chapter 1: Suspicious Circs.

When Gil entered the conference room he wasn't surprised to find that Nick, Warrick, Catherine, and Greg were already there. For a second he wondered where Sara was, but then he remembered that she had requested the week off. When she had requested it, he had been surprised but also somewhat pleased. For the past three months Sara had done nothing but work. Even on her days off, she had found some reason to come into the lab. So, of course, he had given her the time off, knowing that his team could handle the week's cases without her. That wasn't to imply that the lab didn't need Sara, in fact, Grissom couldn't imagine not having her on the team.

"So, what have you got for us this week?" Catherine turned from the coffee maker to ask.

"Nick, I want you and Warrick to take the db on the strip. Greg, you and I have a missing persons, and you, Catherine have a suspicious circs. Any questions?"

"Yeah, where's Sara? I haven't seen her yet."

"Really? Usually you're following her around like a puppy dog by now." Smirking, Catherine glanced over at Greg and watched his face turn red at her comment.

"I don't follow her like a puppy dog."

"Actually, Sara has requested the week off. Now, let's get out in the field."

Before anyone could ask why, Grissom had left the room. Greg jumped up and practically ran after him. Saying goodbye to Catherine, Nick and Warrick also left. Instead of following the others out, Catherine stood at the counter wondering about Sara. It was so out of character for Sara to ask for one day off, let alone seven. By no means were her and Sara close, but she was still worried about her. Looking down at the case Grissom had given her, Catherine decided that she would worry about Sara after she had dealt with her suspicious circs. She would call Sara after work to check on her.

With her case file in hand, Catherine hurried down the halls of the lab and out to the parking lot. After she had gotten into the Tahoe and had started on her way to the crime scene, her mind drifted to the case. Suspicious circs. could be anything from a peeping Tom to murder. Until she actually got to the crime scene and looked at the evidence, all she could do was guess. Years of working with Grissom had taught her that she should never guess on a case, but how was she supposed to tell her imagination that.

The crime scene ended up being an alley behind a bar. When she got out of the Tahoe and grabbed her case from the back of the vehicle, Brass waved her over to the crime scene tape. Pulling out her identification, Catherine showed it to the officer standing at the crime scene tape. With a curt nod he held the tape up for her to duck under. A young blonde was standing next to Brass, who had out his notepad taking notes. Apparently, this woman was a witness to the crime that Catherine still knew nothing about.

"Catherine, this is Ms. Innes. She's the one who called the cops. Ms. Innes, this is Catherine Willows from the Las Vegas crime lab. She's going to ask you about what you saw." Politely, Catherine shook the woman's hand.

"What happened that made you call the cops?"

"I came out here to smoke and I head someone yell. So, I ran back here and saw this man pinning a woman to the wall by her wrists. She kept struggling and telling him to get off her and then he hit her and she fell. I ran inside to get help and called the cops, but when we came back out here, they were gone."

"We?"

"The bouncer and me."

Frowning, Catherine pictured the event in her mind. More than once she had seen the same thing happen in the strip club that she had worked in. Some creep would follow one of the girls out and make a move on them. When they turned the guy down, he would force himself on them, and unless one of the security guards got out there, the creep would end up hitting the woman. Most of the time the creeps were stopped before they could get to the woman. Apparently, no one had been able to help her victim in time. She had probably gone to the bar alone and left alone.

"Can you describe the man and woman to me?"

"I didn't get a good look at the guy, but the woman had brown hair about shoulder length. She was tall and skinny too. It was dark, though so I can't really tell you much more than that."

"Did you see a car leaving when you came back out?"

"No, sorry."

"Where, exactly, did you see this taking place?"

"About halfway down the alley." Catherine turned to look at where the witness was pointing somewhere around a pile of garbage.

"Do you remember anything else that might be helpful?"

For a second the woman thought about it, then shook her head. "No, sorry."

"Alright. Thank you for your time. If you will, give Detective Brass here your contact information in case we have anymore questions."

"Sure."

"Brass, can you see if any of the video cameras from any of the shops around here saw anything that could help? See if the bar had one out back, too."

After she had pulled on her gloves and grabbed her case, Catherine started down the alley to where the witness had pointed. The farther down the alley she got, the stronger it smelled of stale beer and urine. Processing this scene, by herself, would take at least three hours. There was too much garbage here possibly concealing important evidence. If she was lucky, there wouldn't be too much contamination to the evidence. Reluctantly, Catherine grabbed her camera and began taking pictures of anything that she felt would be important to her investigation. She stopped when she noticed a broken bottle with what appeared to be blood on it.

After she took a picture of the bottle, Catherine swabbed the bottle to check for blood. Frowning, she watched as the swab turned pink, indicating that the red substance on the bottle was, in fact, blood. She bagged the bottle to send to trace and continued processing the scene. Other than a few blood drops, there was nothing else to suggest that there had been a struggle in that alley. Well, not any that would stand out in the garbage cluttered alley.

By the time Catherine was finished with the crime scene, she had been there for almost three hours. Once her gear was packed, Catherine hopped back into the Tahoe and headed to the crime lab. The sooner she got trace checking out the blood, the sooner she could really get started on the case. In cases like this one, time was against her. The longer it took for her to find the victim, the more time she spent not knowing if the woman was alive or dead.

In less that thirty minutes, Catherine was back at the lab. Upon arrival she had taken the broken bottle to trace, and not long after that, Brass had showed up with the security camera tapes from the surrounding stores. Not sure of how long it would take for them to watch all of the tapes, Catherine and Brass both grabbed a cup of coffee before they settled down in one of the empty labs to watch the tapes. Normally they would have been in the lab with Archie, but he was out of town for a few days, which meant that they were on their own. They were halfway through their third tape when Greg came into the lab carrying a envelope.

"Hey, I was just down by trace. They wanted me to give you this. They found a match for the blood you found on that broken bottle,"

"Good, maybe we have something to go on, now."

Catherine glanced over the report not expecting to find what she found. The blood on the broken bottle belonged to someone that all three of them knew personally. Sara. Catherine felt the blood drain from her face and felt the report slip from her hand. She didn't bother to try and pick it up. Her concern for Sara at the beginning of the shift, now returned. Only this time she had a logical explanation for being concerned.

"Catherine? Hey, are you okay?" While Greg tried to get Catherine to respond, Brass picked up the report and read over it.

"Greg. Go get Grissom."

Greg was about to ask why, when Catherine jumped up and started pacing the room. The two men watched her for a minute as she paced and thought. Turning to Brass, she grabbed the report and then turned to the T.V. monitor. They hadn't seen anything on the tapes indicating that Sara had been there. The blood could just be circumstantial.

"No. No, we don't know for sure that the woman attacked was her!"

"Cath-" Brass attempted to interrupt her, but she held up a hand stopping him.

"No. We'll call Sara and ask her why her blood is on that bottle."

"Wait! You found a broken bottle with Sara's blood on it?"

By the time Greg had finished asking the question, Catherine had already dialed Sara's cell and was waiting impatiently for Sara to pick up, while Brass filled Greg in on the case. Sara would explain how her blood got in the alley and they could all breath easier. At least that's what Catherine told herself. When the phone switched over to voicemail, Catherine hung up and dialed Sara's home phone. She ended up getting the same results as she had, had with the cell. Frustrated and worried, Catherine slammed her own cell down on the table. They still had the security tapes.

"That-that doesn't mean anything. She could be out and her cell is just dead. Let's, um, let's finish watching the tapes, and we'll keep trying to call her. Yeah." All of this was said more to herself, than to Greg and Brass. 


	2. Cold Case

Disclaimer: see chapter one X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Chapter 2: The Evidence Doesn't Lie

Catherine hoped against hope that they wouldn't find anything on the tapes indicating that Sara had been in that alley. On the sixth tape, however, a camera from across the street had caught the scene. When they zoomed in, it was clear that the victim was, in fact, Sara. Repeatedly, they watched as Sara left the club and watched her assailant follow her out. In the alley he caught up to her and grabbed her arm, then proceeded to grab her other arm and pin her wrists to the wall on either side of her. Sara fought against him and managed to get free, but she couldn't get away before he back handed her across the face. Holding her face, she fell to the ground where her hand landed on the broken bottle. When the guy advanced on her again, she got up and kneed him in the groin before she ran off and out of the camera's range. Only a few seconds later the guy chased after her. Unfortunately, the camera had not been able to get the man's face captured on tape.

"There's nothing here to help us!" Practically on the verge of tears, Catherine yelled out. With a shaky sigh she turned to Greg and Brass. "Greg, can Grissom spare you for a while?

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Our missing person turned up, so I'm free."

"Good. I want you to call Sara's cell phone and home phone again. Brass, can you get a couple of uniforms and go to Sara's apartment? She might just be ignoring the phone."

"Sure. I'll call the local hospitals too, to see if she went to one to get checked out."

"Good. I'm going to finish watching these tapes to see if I can find anything on the rest that will help us. Oh, and can you get a list of everyone who was working at that bar tonight? There's a good chance that someone saw Sara and our mystery man."

"I'll see what I can do. Catherine?" By now Greg had already left to make the phone calls, so it was just Catherine and Brass in the lab.

"Hmm?"

"Shouldn't we tell Grissom about this?"

Catherine knew that she should tell Grissom about the case before word got around to him, but that didn't mean that she was looking forward to the experience. Everyone knew that Grissom had a thing for Sara no matter how much he denied it or tried to hide it. Personally, she thought he was a fool for not acting on his attraction to her. It was clear that she was attracted to him, so why hadn't he acted on it? Was it because he was afraid of conflict in the work area, or was it the age difference? Whatever it was, he needed to get over it. Even she could see that Sara was a beautiful and intelligent woman, and was worth whatever the cost to have her in your life. To be more than just friends, or a co-worker to her.

"I'll tell him, he might take it better coming from me."

Brass didn't object to this idea. He didn't want to be the one to tell Grissom that any more than she did. With a weak smile Brass left Catherine to gather her nerves to face Grissom. He would take a bullet any day rather than tell Grissom that his prodigy/love interest was missing. Grissom had never really been one to lose his cool, but there was always a first time for everything. Brass had seen it lots of time out in the field. A calm collected guy loses his cool, and the next thing you know there's a db on your hands.

"Good luck." he called back to her.

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Catherine found Grissom in his office among his various jarred specimen. Instead of working on the pile of paperwork on his desk, Gil was staring at one of his little bug friends under a magnifying glass. When he didn't seem to notice her, Catherine stepped into the cluttered office and stood in front of his desk. Still, he didn't pay her any attention. What is so interesting about that damn bug?

"Gil." Finally Grissom looked up at her, looking like she had just walked in the door.

"Is there something you need, Catherine?" Apparently he hasn't heard the news yet. Good.

"Yes, actually, there is. I take it you haven't heard about anything concerning the case you gave me at the beginning of shift."

"Should I have?" His normally blank expression turned to one of confusion at Catherine's vague question.

"Have you spoken with Sara since the last shift?" It was worth a shot; if Sara was in trouble it wouldn't seem odd for her to call Grissom for help.

"Catherine, I don't understand. What does this have to do with the case I gave you?"

"At the crime scene I found a broken bottle with trace amounts of blood on it. When trace ran it they found a match. The blood on the bottle belonged to Sara. She was attacked in an alley. From what we can tell, she got away, but we haven't been able to contact her to see if she's alright."

For a moment, Grissom sat there silently processing what she had just told him. Then he started questioning whether or not he should tell Catherine about the case Sara had been working on in her spare time. It could be crucial to the investigation, but it would also piss Sara off if she found out. Then again, if it helps find her, Grissom can deal with Sara being pissed at him. Besides, Catherine deserved to know. After all, the case did have something to do with her.

" I don't know if this will help you any, but it might. Sara has been working on an old case, in her spare time. This could be irrelevant, or it could offer you, your first suspect. Sara has been working on Eddie's case."

"What? Wait, you knew about this and you didn't tell me?"

"Sara didn't want to get you involved, not until she felt that the case was solved."

"Damnit! Gil, you knew! You knew and you didn't tell me! I had every right to know about this! She's investigating the death of my ex-husband, the father of my child, and you didn't bother to tell me!"

"Catherine-"

"No! Don't talk to me, Gil. I want that case file. It's now a part of my investigation."

Beyond pissed, Catherine stormed out of the office. If she hadn't left then, she would have ended getting suspended for cussing Grissom out. Then she wouldn't have the satisfaction of finding Sara and giving her a piece of her mind for keeping the case from her. Why had she been investigating that case anyways? It had been closed within a week of Eddie's death. There hadn't been enough evidence to convict anyone. Even though she was beyond pissed at Sara at the moment, in a way all she wanted to do was find Sara and protect her from whatever evils were after her.

"Damnit, Sara. You better be okay." 


	3. Help

Disclaimer: see chapter one Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been grounded. I want to thank all of you who have sent me your reviews. They are very much appreciated. You all totally rock!

NOTE TO READERSWhat do you guys think about a slight CSI/CSI Miami crossover? Sara and Catherine would still end up together, that's not, not gonna happen. I don't want to do the crossover thing if you all think it's gonna suck, so tell me what you think. I just thought it would be neat to bring in H. and that attraction thing he and Cath had going on in Cross Jurisdictions, just to see where it will or, most likely, wont go.

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Chapter 3: Help

"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you, Sara? The bastard's dead and the case was closed. You should have left it at that. Then you wouldn't be in this situation, now."

In reply, Sara glared at the man from the backseat of the car. There wasn't really anything else she could do. After she had run off, he had caught up to her in the empty parking lot behind the bar. When she had reached for her gun she realized, too late, that she had left her gun in her car. On the way over to the bar it had been jabbing her in the side, so she had removed it. When she got out of the car, she hadn't thought to grab it. That had been her first mistake.

Her second mistake had been confronting Kyle about Eddie's death, without any backup. Her third mistake could cost her, her life. After she had realized that she didn't have her gun, she froze in panic for just a few seconds. Those few seconds had given Kyle the time to reach her and slam her into one of the vehicles around them. Sara's head slammed into the window of a F150. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness, was Kyle approaching her with a roll of duck tape in his hands.

When she had regained consciousness, she was in the backseat of a car, with her hands and feet bound, and a piece of duck tape over her mouth. For a minute she had laid there trying to figure out where she was. She knew that she was in a car; she just didn't know whose. Experimentally, she had tested the restraints only to find that they wouldn't budge. Scared and a little pissed off, Sara began struggling against the restraints. When Kyle heard her moving around, he turned towards her letting her get a glimpse of his face. That's when Sara started to remember what had happened.

"I don't really want to kill you, Sara. I just can't go to prison, you know? I have to be here for Cindy and the baby. I know you were just doing your job, and I'm sorry that things are going to end like this."

It wasn't so much that Sara was afraid to die, it was just that there were so many things that she needed to do. There were also so many things that she regretted having done, and that she needed to make amends for. Both involved Catherine in one form or another. It just didn't seem right that she was going to die never having told Catherine how crazy about her, she was. Or that she'd never have the chance to apologize for all the times she had made rude remarks about Catherine's past.

Sara was pulled out of her thoughts when the car stopped, and Kyle got out. She only had a few seconds to try and figure out how she was going to get away. Again, she tried the restraints only to get the same results as before. Silently, she prayed that Grissom and the others were looking for her. Then again, how did she know that anyone had even seen anything? Plus, she was supposed to be on vacation for a week, so they wouldn't think that she was missing until seven days later. 'Fuck.'

She didn't have time to think of anything else, before Kyle opened the door and started pulling her out. Unfortunately, he had chosen to pull her out head first. If he had chosen feet first, then she could have kicked him in the face, and maybe have gotten away. As Kyle continued pulling her out of the car, Sara felt her jeans snag on the seat for just a brief moment before her badge fell out of her pocket. A brief flicker of hope presented itself to her. If the other CSIs were looking for her, and they came across Kyle's car in their investigation, then they'd know that he had her. She was even more thankful when it appeared that Kyle hadn't seen that badge fall from her pocket. There was a chance that Grissom and the rest of the team could find her before it was too late.

After he had pulled Sara from the car, Kyle picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. At this hour, everyone was either asleep or on the strip at one of the casinos, so Kyle didn't have to worry about anyone spotting him carrying Sara in. He could hide her in the basement for a while, until he figured out what he was going to do with her. He really had meant it when he had said that he didn't want to kill Sara. After Sara had started going to the bar and had befriended the dancers, they had become friends through Cindy. He just wasn't willing to go to jail for killing someone who deserved what he got.

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Five hours. Sara had been missing for five hours. In that amount of time Catherine had already made more than her fair share of mistakes on the case. She hadn't questioned anyone inside the bar, nor had she checked the parking lot behind the bar for signs of a struggle. Even Greg, a rookie CSI, would have done that. How could she have fucked up so bad on a case? She was a senior CSI; she didn't make mistakes like that.

"Catherine!" Catherine turned to find Nick and Warrick jogging to catch up to her. "Grissom said we had a priority case, said we should talk to you."

Warrick didn't stop Catherine when she buried her face in his jacket and started crying. After sharing a puzzled look with Nick, Warrick wrapped his arms around Catherine offering her what support he could. His first thought was that something had happened to Lindsey, but if that was the case then she wouldn't be on the case. His second thought was that the case was a child abuse case, but that didn't feel right. No, there was something else making her cry.

"Cath, what's going on?"

"Rick, I-I fucked up. I fucked up so bad, and now …now she could be dead, because I fucked up on the case." Catherine pulled away wiping her eyes furiously trying to get the tears to stop.

"Who, Cath? Who could be dead?"

"Sara." For a moment Nick and Warrick stood there in shock.

"Sara? You mean our Sara?" Nick asked having found his voice first.

Still fighting back tears, Catherine explained to Nick and Warrick about the case. She also told them about all of the mistakes she had made, and how she was afraid that her mistakes could make them lose Sara. The whole time she struggled with keeping her tears down. When she was finished all Nick could do was stand there. He couldn't stop the memories of his own abduction from surfacing up. He could feel the same fear he had felt then gripping at his chest, and wondered if Sara felt that same fear.

"Nick, if this is going to bring up back memories, then we can spare you, but we need everyone else."

"No. I want to help."

"Alright. Nick, you go over to Sara's apartment. Brass is already there. There might be something there that could help us. Warrick, I want you to go to the AV lab and finish watching the security tapes. If you see anything suspicious call me."

"What about me?" Greg asked, stepping out into the hallway with the trio.

"You didn't get her, did you?" Solemnly, Greg shook is head. "Alright, I want you to find me everything you can about Sara. Find everything, if she stole a Baby Ruth when she was twelve, I want to know how many peanuts it had."

"What about Grissom?"

"I don't know what Grissom is doing, nor do I care. Look, we really need to find a lead and soon. Sara's been missing for five hours. The more time we spend looking for her, the more likely it is, that we won't find her alive." With a nod, Nick and Greg left to do what they had been assigned.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going back to the bar that she was taken from. Maybe someone inside saw something."

"Are you alright?"

"No, Warrick! Sara could be die, and it would be my fault, because I didn't do my job right. You know, Sara and I may not get along well, but that doesn't mean that I want anything bad to happen to her." She couldn't stop the tears from coming now. When Nick had been abducted she had been worried, but at least then they had, had some kind of lead. They didn't even have a breadcrumb to find Sara with.

"Hey, hey. Nobody said that you did. All I meant was that you seem really upset. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"I'll be fine as soon as we find Sara. Don't forget to call me if you see anything suspicious." Without looking back, Catherine left a concerned Warrick standing in the hallway outside of the break room. 


	4. Admitting Truth

Disclaimer: See chapter one Hey guys er and gals sry it took so long to update. I've had serious writers block. After much debate with my inner self I have decided against bringing in Horatio, considering he's already in a relationship and this story is based on this season of CSI.

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Chapter Four: Admitting The Truth

It was four in the morning and Catherine was still awake pouring over Sara's file for what felt like the thousandth time. Since Greg had given her the file four days ago, she had read it at least ten times. She had remembered every detail in the file by now. Everything from her less than pleasant childhood to her almost DUI. Yet she still continued to reread the file, repeatedly torturing herself with the doctor reports from Sara's childhood. That's all she could do.

After Sara had been missing for two days, the FBI had been called in. Grissom, Nick, Warrick, Greg and Catherine, had all fought to stay on the case, but Ecklie had said that they were all too close to the case. He gave the case to the feds, but not before Catherine could get copies of everything in the case file. By the fifth day Grissom had demanded that she take a few days off to rest. Even he could see that she hadn't been sleeping. She really had been trying to sleep, but every time she would go to sleep, she would always wake up in a cold sweat after having a nightmare about Sara. It was the same nightmare every time. Sara would be beaten and bloodied, lying in an alley waiting for them to come save her. Everyone had just figured that she felt guilty for messing up on the case, but they didn't know what she knew.

Sara had been missing for ten hours when she had finally sat down and started thinking about what was happening. It was then that she had discovered why Sara's disappearance was bothering her so much more than Nick's had. She had feelings for Sara. Not the kind of feelings someone has for a friend, rather the kind that leads to sleepless nights thinking about the other person in compromising situations. She wasn't about to tell the guys that, so she took the few days off.

Rather than going home and resting, she had gone out to investigate Sara's case on her own. The feds had given up on ever finding Sara when they had searched her apartment and found a letter of resignation, so Catherine had taken the investigating into her own hands. She had even gone so far as to interrogate each of the suspects in all of Sara's active cases. All that got her was a migraine and a good yelling at from her mother when she came home late, again.

Instead of fighting with her mother, Catherine had gone up to her room, making some excuse about needing sleep. Unfortunately, Lindsey was at the beach for a couple of weeks with one of her friends. The younger Willows usually served as an escape from work for her mother. Sighing, Catherine laid down on her bed with her feet hanging off the bed. For a couple of hours she stared up at the ceiling willing the answer to Sara's whereabouts to appear there.

By six the next morning, Catherine had showered and dressed, and was grabbing her coat and purse when there was a knock at her door. Within seconds the door was open and she was standing face to face with Warrick. Looking at his rumpled clothes, she guessed he had just gotten off work. Well that and the fact that he was there instead of at home with his wife.

"Hey, Rick. What are you, uh, doing here?"

"Hey, Cath. You wanna go grab some breakfast?"

"I can't. I promised Linds we'd go shopping today, you know because I've been caught up in Sara's case." Warrick just shook his head and looked up at Catherine sadly.

"Lindsey's at the beach for two weeks. You told me that a month ago, remember? Come on, Cath. Please. We haven't talked much since I got married and since Sara went missing you've been distancing yourself from everyone. I miss you, Cath." Though she tried not to, Catherine looked into Warrick's pleading eyes and couldn't refuse him of anything at that moment.

"Alright, let me get my purse and coat and I'll be right back out." For the first time in six days Warrick smiled; just a small smile but a smile non-the-less.

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The whole ride to the diner was made in silence. Not a single word was said between the two until they had been seated and were ordering their drinks. Once the waitress walked off Warrick turned to Catherine. For a moment he took the time to examine her physical appearance. Her eyes were bloodshot and dark bags hung under her eyes. He didn't have to be a CSI to know that she still wasn't sleeping.

"When was the last time you got any sleep?" Warrick asked, his voice laced with concern.

"I've taken a few power naps here and there. Just enough to keep me alive," she said knowing there was no use in lying to Warrick. He would be able to see past any lie she told.

"Have you gone to a department shrink, yet? If you won't talk to us and let us help you, maybe a shrink could.," he suggested.

"Why, so they can tell me something I already know? That if I don't start getting some sleep I'm going to crash. That I have unresolved issues concerning Sara that I need to get out. Thanks but no thanks. I already know why I'm not sleeping, I don't need a shrink to tell me that."

"Well, will you talk to me?" Once again Catherine heard the pleading in his voice and sighed defeated.

"You can't tell anyone about this conversation, Rick. No one can know about what I'm about to tell you, because I'm not even sure that I know what's going on inside my head." Warrick nodded, silently promising to keep her secret. With another sigh, Catherine took a calming breath before she began. "I think I-I might have feelings for Sara."

"We all care about-" He was interrupted by Catherine shaking he head.

"No. I mean I might be attracted to Sara." Realization dawned on Warrick and he stared at her in shock. "I don't think I'm feeling this just because she's missing. I think I've always been attracted to her. I, uh, think that might be why I kept her at a distance. And, yeah, that's a lot of thinks, but yeah, I'm attracted to Sara," she said hurriedly. Warrick just continued to stare at her. "Rick, say something!"

"Cath, I don't know what to say. I love both of you. Both of you are my friends, and I want you both to be happy. If you think that the two of you can be happy together, then I hope things go well for you. God knows you both deserve to be happy. I don't want this to end up being because Sara was kidnapped. I don't want to see either one of my friends hurt and I don't want to have to chose one over the other."

Catherine looked down at her hands and nodded. She didn't want to have to put Warrick in the position of having to chose one of them over the other. Then again, Warrick also said that if she thought they could be happy together then to go for it. Did she really believe that they could be happy together? Not to mention she didn't even know if Sara even liked her. What if they never found her at all, or if they did and she was dead? Now that she had come to the truth would she be able to deal with that? It wasn't until she heard Warrick let out a long exhale that she allowed herself to be pulled from her thoughts.

"Cath, there's something else we need to talk about," he said pausing long enough to make sure that he had Catherine's attention. "The feds are going back to their home office. They're still going to be working on the case, but they don't think she'll be back."

Catherine simply nodded in response. She had known as soon as they had found the letter of resignation that it would only be a matter of time before they left. They didn't expect her to come back so why would they stay? They would go on and forget about her. She would just be another missing person, another name on their list of people who were never coming back. She was coming back though, they would find her and she would tell Sara how she felt about her. She would do everything in her power to protect Sara whether Sara wanted that protection or not. 


End file.
